The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-02-18
Ana nrst pegan TO weep,
For I knew my secret then was one
That earth refused to keep;
On land or sea though it should b0
IT,. Al,nr,nnna fn4hnr-ns an.ar, y


Some sinners are never found out in the
world around; they are not openly pun
ished; but for all that they don't escape.
They carry a detective within from whom
they might escape if they could tear out
their very nature. Conscience finds them
out. Any how conscience does worry the
sinner with remorse.
I must tell you what remorse is: A fox
was once caught in trap, but in the morn
ing only one of his legs was found. The
wise creature when caught concluded that
it would be better to limp back to his den
with three legs, than, having four legs, to
perish in pain. He turned upon his leg and
gnawed it through. The fox teaches you
the exact meaning of remorse; for the word
means to bite backwards, to gnaw one's
self
Sin finds the sinner out when conscience
devours the soul. That heather New
Zealander understood this, who gave back
a coin that he had stolen from the white
man, because of the quarreling going on
inside him, as he said, between the good
man and the bad man. In the newspapers
there is often a notice headed, Con-
science Money" People who have cheated
the tax-gatherer afterwards send the
money they should have paid him-found
out, not by the tax-ga atherer, but by their
own conscience. Many criminals have
given themselves up to the Judge because
so dreadful as remorse, and some, like
Judas, have killed themselves because
death did not seem 80 terrible as life tort
ured by guilty conscience.
Many men have lots of money and fine
houses and splendid health, and yet the
fixed scowl on the brow, the curled lip the
fierce eye, the joyless face, the bitter
words, show that they are not happy.
Why's Sin has found them out in the
60
the Saviour for pardon and peace.
Even Nero, the monster, had to fly from
the spot where he had caused his mother
to be murdered. Under the lashes of con-
science he fancied that he was haunted by
her angry ghost, and that he heard the
blowing of a ghostly trumpet and wailings
over her tomb. He was like the infidel
Lord Lytton, who was sometimes so
frightened that he rushed into the bed
room of a friend in order that he might, in
his company, shield himself from the ter
rors of the spiritual world. At last he had
to forsake his splen did mansion, be cause it
was too near the grave of one whom he
had ruined.
The poet Byron confesses how his sin
thoughts of sin and self he took to travel
ing as thousands do; but he felt like the
unresting Cain, for travellers beyond the
seas change their cline but not their con-
science. Memory and conscience break
out like plague in a ship in which the
prOdigal hoDes to sail anew from his sin.
Il would be a grand mistake to think
| that only great sinners and great sins are
| found out by conscience. De Quincy, the
| opium eater, tells US what he felt about it.
He saw mighty phantom, ever growing
more and more colossal, striding after him
in pursuit from forgotten days. One folly
most people would have thought little Of
tt-one folly at the age of seventeen
haunted him for more than half century.
He used often to Iiken conscience to the
whispering gallery in st. Paul's, London.
A word whispered ever so gently is loudly
re- echoed at the other. In youth con-
science child him in Bullen whispers; in old
age, at the other end of his life gallery, the
same conscience spoke to him as in peals
of thunder. The still, small voice which
the boy needed not returned to the old man
like the crack of doom in terrible self-re-
proaches.
What an awful discoverer of sin your
conscience isl Be sure your sin, whether
it be great or small, will find you out.
Augustine says that his old sins haunted
him in his dreams. Cowper used to sit in
the farthest corner of the room, imagining
that the voice of conscience was loud
enough for every one to hear it, Samuel
Johnson told a friend that the reason he
often started and spoke to himself in com
pany was that he was upbraiding himself
for the sins of his youth. A man whose
outward life was blameless told me that
he once lay at deaths door for few days.
He remembered his whole past life, or,
rather, he saw it all as in a picture. His
mind was strangely strengthened and en-
larged so that he was able to take in the
whole at once. Little acts done in his
boyhood, such as unkind words and the
| stealing Of little things from his mother
and sisters, thousands of such deeds
seemed as if done yesterday, and filled him
with worse pain than that of the body.
How pitiful is the case of the man whose
sin, unforgiven, finds him out when death
| is knocking at the door. / have seen such
cases, and 1 pray God that 1 may never see
the like again. Death comes and the dying
man not ready, declaring that he has no
hope But death won't waitl God grant
that your sin may find you out now, so that
death may find you undismayed.
Sin finds US out in the world beyond.
Moses does not say when or where our sin
will find US out; but he says that it will
surely find US out some time and some
where. Many great sinners are never
found out on earth, especially in foreign
lands where the law is weak; their guilty
secrets are buried with them in their
graves. In others, conscience has been
slain or silenced, 80 that they are not
found out in the world within. "But 'tis
not so above" Many wicked men die
calmly without any fear. Yet sin finds
every sinner out before the great White
Throne.
The wonderful discoveries Of science
show US, in many strange and startling
ways, our sins, if not forgiven, may find
US out in the other world. A church in
Italy was so built by accident that it formed
what is called whispering gallery. One
or two found out the secret, and when their
neighbors were confessing their sins in
whisper to the priest they heard all dis
tnctly at the other end. Now, this whole
world may be by design what that church
was by accident, and the sinners whisper
on earth may be heard by an ear in Heaven.
Between earth and Heaven there may be
an echo, informing against the sinner
Again, science proves that every ac-
ton leaves mark that can never be de-
stroyed-oceans can't wash it out Apart
from pardoning mercy we shall have 10
face an indelible past. You know how
photographs are taken. Wen, some dis
coveries suggest that all our deeds may be
photographed in the skies. On the Judg-
ment Day the sinner may be, as IT were,
ushered INTO a room, the walls Of which
are covered with bright pictures Of all his
sins.
A man Of science says: THE air is one
vast library, on whose pages are forever
written all man has ever said or woman
whispered" " Then our actions, our every
thought, may be telegraphed TO the skies.
The latest discoveries Of science may well
make Us tremble, for they come very near
proving that our deeds make marks
by which they may be easily found out in
the world to come. But, be that as il may,
Gods word leaves no doubt about tn fact.
We must all appear before the judgment
seat OF Christ; and every hidden thing
will then be brought TO light. TO have sin
finding Us out il this world is painful; 20
have sin finding Us out in the world within
is more painful still; but 70 have ain find
ing as out I'm the world 70 come is the most